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Bee pollinators can thrive in highly urbanized environments if their preferred floral resources and habitat types are available. Enhanced pollinator habitats are being created globally, with a large local effort in Portland, Oregon. This project determined if we were providing the most preferred floral resources at enhanced pollinator sites for bees, if floral resources were available throughout the season, and if differences in dietary preferences between native and honey bees would allow for the identification of “native bee floral resources” in South East Portland. Bee pollinators were monitored from June to August at three enhanced pollinator sites in South East Portland, Oregon. A total of 566 individual bees were observed, tiny dark bees and bumblebees composed the large majority of the urban bee composition. Vegetation metrics and bee presence were correlated using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model and significant variables that predicted bee presence included Solidago canadenisis (p-value 0.0024), density of floral resources (p-value <.001), the months June (p-value 0.02) and July (p-value 0.001) as well as tiny dark bees (p-value 0.0023). Floral resource composition shifted between sites and months, with all sites having drastically reduced floral richness in August indicating diverse floral resources were not available throughout the season. Additionally, it was found that honey bees and native bees had little dietary overlap, Honey bees preferred Penstemon species and native bee preferred Solidago canadenisis. Recommendations for managing enhanced pollinator sites from this work included planting more late season plants, specific pollinator plant lists for native bees and honey bees and scheduling regular site care and watering at enhanced sites.
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Advisor: | Dresner, Marion |
Commitee: | Masta, Susan, Gerwing, Jeffery |
School: | Portland State University |
Department: | Environmental Science |
School Location: | United States -- Oregon |
Source: | MAI 81/3(E), Masters Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | Environmental science, Environmental Health, Conservation biology |
Keywords: | Bee, Community science, Floral resources, Pollinators, Portland, Preferred |
Publication Number: | 13887209 |
ISBN: | 9781085793346 |